This is the best vegan gluten-free apple pie I’ve ever had.

Those of you who’ve made the frozen berry pie I posted several years ago would be familiar with the genius of my dear friend Kate McDermott from Art Of The Pie. Those of you who are new the site, get ready for epic vegan gluten-free apple pie because this lovely lady is a pie master!

She’s also one of the loveliest people on the planet, and her new book, Art Of The Pie is my go-to holiday gift this year, because everybody should know how to make an awesome pie. This book is flying off the shelves this holiday season because it is epic!

Art Of The Pie: A Practical Guide To Homemade Crusts, Fillings, and Life (with stunning images from Andrew Scrivani) is THE pie-making bible for any kind of pie you could ever want to make.

Kate teaches master chefs and bakers (and some of the most famous people in the food world) how to make pie. People fly her all over the world to teach pie-making classes. I had the pleasure of attending one of her classes a few years ago, and it was utterly magical.

Ruth Reichl, former editor of Gourmet and author of My Kitchen Year says, “I’ve been baking pies my whole life, but making them with Kate was a liberating experience. With pioneer spirit, she throws the textbook out the window and comes up with absolutely perfect crust filled with fruit that actually sings to you.”

Dorie Greenspan, award-winning author says “Baking from Art of the Pie is like having pie maker Kate McDermott at your elbow, encouraging, instructing and cheering you on.  Whether you’re a seasoned pie hand or a beginner with more enthusiasm than skill, Kate’s got you covered.”

With her vast experience making pie, Kate has developed more than a dozen fool-proof crust recipes (conventional, vegan, and gluten-free varieties), and in this book she shares all of these recipes so you can make perfect pies for your family. She gives you step-by-step instructions for making, rolling, and baking crusts, as well as how to make incredible pie fillings with seasonal fruit. Organized loosely by type of fruit, style of pie, and sweet versus savory, the recipes in this book range from family favorites to exotic creations, so there’s recipes for novice pie makers to more seasoned bakers.

Kate shares practical tips for: stocking your kitchen with a few pie-making tools, measuring ingredients for success, using your oven effectively for the best crumb and crust, caring for your rolling pins, how to use pastry cloths, choosing pie pans, plates, and tins, and how to make, roll, cool, and blind bake a crust.

There is a very comprehensive chapter on how to make perfect pie dough (the principles of flour, salt, fat, and water), with recipes for every kind of traditional, gluten-free, and vegan dough, as well as instructions for making vents, appliques, crimps, flutes, and lattices, as well as tips for washes and glazes.

Kate has an amazing gluten-free flour mix that is my go-to recipe for pie dough. There is a gluten-free all-butter dough (I use vegan butter), a gluten-free butter and shortening dough, gluten-free no-bake crust, and gluten-free vegan dough (my go-to recipe). Kate relies of Dr Jean Layton‘s famous Pixie Dust recipe to help bind the dough.

Once you’ve got the crust covered, the chapter on fillings is amazing. Kate covers fruit, sweeteners, seasonings, and thickeners to help you fill and finish your pies. This book not only has incredible recipes, but arms you with the tools to get creative and create your own pies with whatever seasonal produce you have.

There are recipes for hand pies, jam pies, pie pops, fried pies, rustic tarts, crumbles, and an entire chapter on making the quintessential apple pie! Kate covers all of the varieties of apples, and shares recipes for the basic apple pie (which I’m sharing today), apple cranberry walnut pie, apple quince pie, and some pear pies.

Then, of course, there’s the berry pies: blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, cranberry, triple berry, forest berry, huckleberry, marionberry, red currant, gooseberry, and raspberry salmonberry. There’s also the popular peach, apricot, rhubarb, lemon meringue, pecan, and pumpkin pies, as well as angel food, grasshopper, banana rum caramel coconut, mocha cream, and chai pie recipes. If you’re after savory pies, there’s recipes for chicken pot pit, cottage, shepherd’s, ratatouille, and pork pies.

What I love the most about this book is the way Kate weaves traditional prep notes into heart-warming anecdotes. She likens pie making to life.

Kate’s Rules Of Pie Making and Life:

#1: Keep everything chilled, especially yourself
#2: Keep your boundaries
#3: Vent

It just about covers it, doesn’t it?

So, here’s The Quintessential Apple Pie.

Kate says, “This gluten-free vegan dough is a bit sandier then traditional pie dough, and like any gluten-free dough I have worked with it is more fragile. For the filling, I don’t peel apples as most skins become soft in the baking, plus their tannins add flavor to the pie. If there is an apple with skin you find too thick, it’s just “off with their jackets!” as Henry Ward Beecher wrote. A mix of six to eight different varieties, some for tart, some that hold their shape, and some that don’t, will give you a pie with exceptional flavor and texture.”

My dad loves apple pie, and this vegan gluten-free apple pie is going to be a staple in our family, I just know it. It’s certainly going on our thanksgiving table this year.

Pie lovers: RUN don’t walk to order your copy of Art Of The Pie. Kate taught me how to make pie, and I’m pretty darm good at it now (when I never was before) because of her tips, tricks, and recipes. This book is utterly exquisite, and will steal your heart just as it has mine.

Learn more about Kate McDermott and book your spot in one of her famous pie-making classes at Art Of The Pie.